Edith Hirsch Luchins (21 December 1921

Brzeziny Brzeziny (; yi, ברעזין, ''Brezin'') is a town in Poland, in Łódź Voivodeship, about 20 km east of Łódź. It is the capital of Brzeziny County and has a population of 12,326 as of December 2021. It once was a thriving Jewish sht ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

– 18 November 2002

Suffern, New York Suffern is a village that was incorporated in 1796 in the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York. Suffern is located 31 miles northwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 census, Suffern's population was 10,723.mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. Her work focused on applying mathematical principles to problems in the philosophy of science and psychology, most notably in the field of

Gestalt psychology Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward T ...

. The Luchins and Luchins' Water Jar Experiment is named after her and psychologist

Abraham S. Luchins Abraham S. Luchins (March 8, 1914 – December 27, 2005) was an American Gestalt Psychologist and a pioneer of group psychotherapy. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in New York. Biography Luchins was a student and staff member of Max ...

Early life and education

Edith Hirsch was born in 1921 in

. She emigrated to the United States at age six, settling with her family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In high school Hirsch excelled at mathematics, tutoring other students and assisting teachers with grading. She earned her B.A from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

in 1942 and her M.A. from

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

in 1944. She obtained her Ph.D. from

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in 1957 with her dissertation "''On Some Properties of Certain Banach Algebras."''

Career

From 1942 to 1943, Luchins worked for the government as an inspector of anti-aircraft equipment at

Sperry Gyroscope Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: *Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County *Sperry, Missouri *Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County *Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana *Sperry Glacier, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Luchins began her doctoral studies at NYU under

Kurt Friedrichs Kurt Otto Friedrichs (September 28, 1901 – December 31, 1982) was a noted German-American mathematician. He was the co-founder of the Courant Institute at New York University, and a recipient of the National Medal of Science. Biography Friedri ...

and

Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of real ...

as she began her teaching career at

. She put her formal studies on hold for several years for personal reasons; however, she continued to conduct research and publish papers in educational mathematics alongside her academic husband. After obtaining her doctorate in 1957, Luchins again pursued teaching, teaching for four years at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

before being appointed as an associate professor at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

in 1962. In 1970, she became the first female full professor at Rensselaer, where she remained until her retirement in 1992.

Awards and achievements

Luchins' success in teaching and advising students was recognized throughout her career by the Rensselaer Distinguished Teaching Award, the Darrin Counseling Award, the Martin Luther King Jr Award, and the Rensselaer Alumni Association Outstanding Faculty Award. She was named a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

in 1982. In 1998, Luchins accepted an honorary membership in the Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications.

Personal life

In 1942 she married Abraham Luchins, an

educational psychologist An educational psychologist is a psychologist whose differentiating functions may include diagnostic and psycho-educational Psychological evaluation, assessment, psychological counseling in educational communities (students, teachers, parents, ...

. The couple had five children together.

Selected publications

*1947 (with Abraham S. Luchins): ''A Structural Approach to the Teaching of the Concept of Area in Intuitive Geometry'' *1953 (with Abraham S. Luchins): ''The Satiation Theory of Figural After-Effects and Gestalt Principles of Perception'' *1959 (with Abraham S. Luchins): ''Rigidity of Behavior - A Variational Approach to the Effect of Einstellung.'' University of Oregon Books: Eugene, Oregon. *1965 (with Abraham S. Luchins): ''Logical Foundations of Mathematics for Behavioral Scientists''. Holt, Rinehart: New York. *1969 (with Abraham S. Luchins): ''The Search for Factors that Extremize the Autokinetic Effect''. Faculty-Student Association: State University of New York at Albany. *1979: ''Sex Differences in Mathematics: How Not to Deal with Them''. American Mathematical Monthly.

References

* *

External links

Biography

; by Abraham S. Luchins and Edith H. Luchins (1999)

by Abraham S. Luchins and Edith H. Luchins

- compiled and commented by Abraham S. Luchins and Edith H. Luchins

by Abraham S. Luchins and Edith H. Luchins {{DEFAULTSORT:Luchins, Edith Hirsch 20th-century American psychologists American women psychologists Gestalt psychologists American psychology writers American textbook writers Women textbook writers 20th-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians 20th-century American women scientists Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty University of Oregon alumni Brooklyn College faculty Brooklyn College alumni Polish emigrants to the United States 1921 births 2002 deaths 20th-century women mathematicians Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science